Registration-adjusting printing plate saddle

ABSTRACT

The leading end face of a semi-cylindrical printing plate saddle, carries a movable central pin and fixed outboard pins thereon to which the perforated ends of the printing plate are secured, and its central portion has an elongated recess adapted to laterally slidably receive a plate attachment and adjustment bar carrying the central pin, which snugly fits a round central hole in the printing plate end. The outlying pins are fixedly secured to the saddle end face and fit laterally elongated guide slots in the printing plate end. The bar is adjustably slidably secured to the recess in the central portion of the end face of the saddle by two bolts threaded through laterally-elongated slots into correspondingly threaded holes in the saddle end face. Fine adjustment of the bar laterally and of the central pin thereon is made by headless conically-tipped set screws threaded through threaded holes in the bar against abutments formed by the edges of holes which are laterally-offset in opposite directions in the saddle end face. After lateral registration adjustment of the central pin and the printing plate attached thereto has been made by rotating the conically-tipped set screws, the bolts are tightened to clamp the bar in its adjusted position.

United States Patent Albright Aug. 19, 1975 REGISTRATION-ADJUSTING PRINTING PLATE SADDLE Inventor:

Filed:

William H. Albright, 305 lvanhoe Blvd, Orlando, Fla. 32804 [52] US. Cl ..101/415.1; 101/378 [51] Int. Cl B4lf 27/12 [58] Field of Search lOl/4l5.l, 378

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,827,300 10/1931 Pritchard et al. 101/415.1 2,137,851 ll/l938 Nelson et a]. 101/4151 2,820,409 1/1951; Johnson... 101/415.1 3,151,553 10 1964 Norton 101/415.1 3,218,970 11/1965 Heimlicher et 101 415.1 x 3,470,817 10/1969 Heimlicher et al. l0l/378 3,533,355 111/1970 Wall 1111/4151 3,583,318 6 1971 Stevenson. 101/415.1

3,696,744 10/1972 EIChell 1111/4151 3,702,098 11/1972 Ebum,Jr... 101/415.1 3,771,449 11 1973 Hill 101 415.1

Primary Examiner-Edgar S. Burr Assistant Examiner-Paul J. Hirsch [57] ABSTRACT The leading end face of a semi-cylindrical printing plate saddle, carries a movable central pin and fixed outboard pins thereon to which the perforated ends of the printing plate are secured, and its central portion has an elongated recess adapted to laterally slidably receive a plate attachment and adjustment bar carrying the central pin, which snugly fits a round central hole in the printing plate end. The outlying pins are fixedly secured to the saddle end face and fit laterally elongated guide slots in the printing plate end. The bar is adjustably slidably secured to the recess in the central portion of the end face of the saddle by two bolts threaded through laterally-elongated slots into correspondingly threaded holes in the saddle end face. Fine adjustment of the bar laterally and of the central pin thereon is made by headless conicallytipped set screws threaded through threaded holes in the bar against abutments formed by the edges of holes which are laterally-offset in opposite directions in the saddle end face. After lateral registration adjustment of the central pin and the printing plate attached thereto has been made by rotating the conically-tipped set screws, the bolts are tightened to clamp the bar in its adjusted position.

9 Claims, 4 Drawing Figures PATE aumsms NTED 3,899,972

REGISTRATION-ADJUSTING PRINTING PLATE SADDLE BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Printing plates, especially color printing plates, require careful adjustment relatively to one another upon the printing press cylinders on which they are mounted in order that the dots upon one plate will register with the corresponding dots on the corresponding plate and thereby insure a sharp reproduction without the blurring occasioned by plates which are not exactly in registry with one another. Previously, such plates have been attemptedly brought into registry by bodily moving one of the semi-cylindrical saddles carrying the plates on the printing press cylinder. Even this inexact adjustment is ineffective where two plates are mounted side by side on a double-length saddle, because the one plate may be in registry while the plate beside it is out of registry and the bodily shifting of the saddle thus never can achieve exact registry for both pairs of plates secured to the two double-length saddles on the same printing press cylinder.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The laterally adjustable bar carrying the central pin and mounted for sliding motion along the central portion of the leading end face of the saddle has a pair of conically-tipped fine-adjustment screws associated therewith according to the present invention, enables the printing plate to be adjusted bodily with precision in later directions relatively to and independently of the abutments on the end face of the saddle itself, which may be permanently bolted to the printing press cylinder. The fine-adjustment screws accomplish the conically-tipped lateral shifting of the bar in one direction or the other along the central portion of the saddle end space by the engagement of their conical tips with the rims of holes offset laterally in opposite directions in the saddle end face and constituting said abutments.

In the drawing,

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a semi-cylindrical registration-adjusting printing plate saddle, according to one form of the invention, shown upon a reduced scale;

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary bottom plan view, upon an enlarged scale, looking upward toward the leading end face of the saddle of FIG. 1 of FIG. 1, upon an enlarged scale, showing the registration-adjustment bar with portions of the saddle broken away to conserve space;

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary vertical longitudinal section, taken along the line 33 in FIG. 2, also with portions of the saddle broken away to conserve space; and

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary central vertical cross-section, through the central plate-attachment pin in FIG. 2, but with the saddle in an inverted position upon a printing press cylinder, and with a thin flexible printing plate mounted upon the saddle.

Referring to the drawing in detail, FIG. I shows a registration-adjusting printing plate saddle, generally designated 10, according to one form of the invention, as consisting of an approximately semi-cylindrical body 12 having partially cylindrical inner and outer surfaces 14 and 16, the former snugly fitting the cylindrical outer surface 13 of a conventional printing press cylinder l and the latter snugly fitting a printing plate 18 stretched snugly over the surface 16 and secured at its opposite ends in this stretched condition by means more fully described below. The general construction of the body 12 is conventional. The opposite ends of the printing plate 18 are perforated as at 20 (FIG. 4).

The trailing end face 19 of the body 12 is drilled at intervals to receive plate attachment elements 21 beyond the scope of the present invention and shown diagrammatically as pins 21 seated therein. It will be understood by those skilled in this art that the trailing end attachment elements 21 are ordinarily associated with tensioning devices, such as slides or screws for imparting a circumferential pull upon the trailing edge of the printing plate so as to hold it tightly in conformity with the cylindrical outer surface 13 of the printing press cylinder 15. An improved printing press tensioning arrangement is shown, for example, in the Albright application, Ser. No. 287,965, filed Sept. 1 1, 1972, for Self- Tensioning Printing Plate Saddle, now US. Pat. No. 3,791,295 issued Feb. 12, I974.

The leading end face 22 of the body 12 at locations spaced away from its midpoint is provided with blind holes 24 (FIG. 3) in which headless outlying plate at tachment guide pins 26 are fixedly mounted. The central portion of the leading end face 22 is recessed as at 28 (FIGS. 1 and 3) to provide a flat bottomed rectilinear guideway 30 to the slot 28. Slidably mounted for lateral adjustment within the slot 28 along the guideway 30 is a movable adjustment bar or plateattachment support 32 (FIGS. 2 and 3), the midpoint of which is drilled with a hole 34 in which is seated the shank 36 of a central plate attachment and registering pin 38 having an enlarged head 40 in contrast to the headless outlying plateattachment pins 26. On oppo site sides of the central bore 34 are two threaded holes 42 in which are rotatably mounted correspondinglythreaded so-called Allen headless conically-tipped set screws or fine adjustment screws 44, the conical tips 45 of which engage abutments formed by the edge 46 of oppositely offset bores 48, the center lines or axes of which are displaced outwardly away from the center lines or axes of the screw holes 42. The conicallytipped screws 44 and offset bores 48 collectively form a fine-adjustment device, generally designated 50. Still farther outward from the central hole 34 and on opposite sides thereof are laterally-elongated bolt holes or slots 52 having similarly elongated counterbores 54 for receiving the heads 56 and threaded shanks 58 of socalled Allen clamping bolts 60.

In the operation of the invention, let it be assumed that a pair of saddles 10 (only one of which is shown) carrying a pair of printing plates 18 (only one of which is shown), such as color plates to be registered, are mounted upon a conventional printing press cylinder 15 (FIG. 4) and secured in place thereon by conventional means such as bolts (not shown). Let it also be assumed that the printing plates 18 have been stretched over their respective saddles 10 with their perforated trailing ends face (not shown) bent over the trailing end I9 ofthe saddle l0 and secured to the pins 2]. The leading ends 66 of the printing plates 18 have laterallyelongated guide slots 64 in the outlying portions of their leading ends 66 and have their circular central holes 68 (FIG. 3) snugly fitting the heads 40 of the central pins 38.

To register the corresponding dots in the two printing plates, such as color plates, on the two saddles 10 on the printing press cylinder 15, the operator studies the corresponding dots made by the plates on impressions thereof, by means of a magnifying glass. If the dots are not in registry with one another, so that the composite impression appears blurred, the operator loosens the bolts 60 with a suitable conventional Allen wrench. and then similarly tightens one of the two headless set screws 44 while loosening the other, according to the direction in which he desires to displace the bar 32 and its pin 38 along the central portion of the end face 22 of the saddle 10, thereby shifting the printing plate 18 laterally in one direction or the other so as to bring the dots thereof into registry or alignment with the dots of the other related printing plate 18. After registration has been accomplished to his satisfaction, as indicated by sharp impressions without blurred dots, he tightens the bolts 60 and thereby locks the bar or support 32 and consequently the central pin 38 in its adjusted position. Meanwhile, the elongated outlying slots 64 in the printing plate 18 end 66 have permitted the printing plate to slide laterally along the saddle in accordance with the lateral sliding of the adjustment bar 32 along the central portion of the end face 22 thereof.

I claim:

1. A registration-adjustment saddle for adjustably moving a flexible printing plate laterally relatively thereto, said saddle comprising a saddle body of partially-cylindrical extent having essentially-cylindrical outer and inner surfaces and having circumferentially-spaced leading and trailing end faces,

means on one of said end faces for securing thereto one end of the printing plate,

an elongated movable plate-attachment support movably mounted on and extending along the central portion only of the other of said end faces for adjustment motion laterally along said central portion thereof,

means connected to said other end face for restricting said adjustment motion to lateral motion relatively to said central portion of said other end face, and adjustably-movable plate-attachment means mounted on said movable support for adjustment motion unitarily therewith laterally along and relatively to said other end face, said plate-attachment means on said plateattachment support including a movable plateattachment element mounted on said support for motion unitarily therewith, said movable plate-attachment element being of such a size that it is snugly received by said plate, said plate-attachment means also including fixed plate-attachment elements stationarily mounted on said other end face of said saddle body in laterally-spaced relationship to said movable element, said fixed attachment elements being of such a size that they are loosely received by said plate.

2. A plate-registration-adjustment saddle, according to claim 1, wherein said movable plate-attachment element comprises a plate-adjusting pin seated in said support for movement unitarily therewith and wherein said fixed plate-attachment elements comprise plate attachment guide pins seated in said other end face outboard of said central portion and also outboard of said movable support and said plate-adjusting pin on said movable support, said guide pins and said plate-adjusting pin projecting circumferentially from said other end face.

3. A plate-registration-adjustment saddle, according to claim 1, wherein said adjustment motion restricting means on said other end of said saddle body includes a laterally-extending slide guideway thereon, and wherein said plate-attachment-element support comprises a slide slidably mounted on said guideway for lateral adjustment motion therealong relatively to said central portion of said other end face.

4. A plate-registration-adjustment saddle, according to claim 3, wherein said guideway comprises an elongated laterally-extending rectilinear recess in said central portion of said other end face of said saddle body, and wherein said support comprises an elongated slide member slidably mounted in said recess.

5. A plate-registration-adjustment saddle, according to claim 3, wherein said movable support also includes an elongated slot extending lengthwise thereof, and wherein a headed guiding-and-clamping bolt extends through said slot and is threaded into said central portion of said other end face of said saddle body.

6. A plate-registration-adjustment saddle, according to claim 1, wherein a fine adjustment device operatively interconnects said central portion of said other end face and said support and is adapted to move said support by minute increments relatively to said other end face.

7. A plate-registration-adjustment saddle, according to claim 6, wherein said fine adjustment device includes a screw-threaded fine-adjustment element and an abutment disposed in operative interengagement between said support and said other end face of said saddle body respectively.

8. A plate-registration-adjustment saddle, according to claim 7, wherein said screw-threaded fineadjustment element comprises a conically-tipped adjustment screw, and wherein said abutment in said other end of said saddle body comprises a contact edge disposed in laterally'offset contacting engagement with said screw.

9. A plate-registration-adjustment saddle, according to claim 8, wherein said contact edge of said abutment comprises the edge of a bore extending into said other end face of said saddle body. 

1. A registration-adjustment saddle for adjustably moving a flexible printing plate laterally relatively thereto, said saddle comprising a saddle body of partially-cylindrical extent having essentially-cylindrical outer and inner surfaces and having circumferentially-spaced leading and trailing end faces, means on one of said end faces for securing thereto one end of the printing plate, an elongated movable plate-attachment support movably mounted on and extending along the central portion only of the other of said end faces for adjustment motion laterally along said central portion thereof, means connected to said other end face for restricting said adjustment motion to lateral motion relatively to said central portion of said other end face, and adjustably-movable plate-attachment means mounted on said movable support for adjustment motion unitarily therewith laterally along and relatively to said other end face, said plate-attachment means on said plate-attachment support including a movable plate-attachment element mounted on said support for motion unitarily therewith, said movable plate-attachment element being of such a size that it is snugly received by said plate, said plate-attachment means also including fixed plateattachment elements stationarily mounted on said other end face of said saddle body in laterally-spaced relationship to said movable element, said fixed attachment elements being of such a size that they are loosely received by said plate.
 2. A plate-registration-adjustment saddle, according to claim 1, wherein said movable plate-attachment element comprises a plate-adjusting pin seated in said support for movement unitarily therewith and wherein said fixed plate-attachment elements comprise plate attachment guide pins seated in said other end face outboard of said central portion and also outboard of said movable support and said plate-adjusting pin on said movabLe support, said guide pins and said plate-adjusting pin projecting circumferentially from said other end face.
 3. A plate-registration-adjustment saddle, according to claim 1, wherein said adjustment motion restricting means on said other end of said saddle body includes a laterally-extending slide guideway thereon, and wherein said plate-attachment-element support comprises a slide slidably mounted on said guideway for lateral adjustment motion therealong relatively to said central portion of said other end face.
 4. A plate-registration-adjustment saddle, according to claim 3, wherein said guideway comprises an elongated laterally-extending rectilinear recess in said central portion of said other end face of said saddle body, and wherein said support comprises an elongated slide member slidably mounted in said recess.
 5. A plate-registration-adjustment saddle, according to claim 3, wherein said movable support also includes an elongated slot extending lengthwise thereof, and wherein a headed guiding-and-clamping bolt extends through said slot and is threaded into said central portion of said other end face of said saddle body.
 6. A plate-registration-adjustment saddle, according to claim 1, wherein a fine adjustment device operatively interconnects said central portion of said other end face and said support and is adapted to move said support by minute increments relatively to said other end face.
 7. A plate-registration-adjustment saddle, according to claim 6, wherein said fine adjustment device includes a screw-threaded fine-adjustment element and an abutment disposed in operative interengagement between said support and said other end face of said saddle body respectively.
 8. A plate-registration-adjustment saddle, according to claim 7, wherein said screw-threaded fine-adjustment element comprises a conically-tipped adjustment screw, and wherein said abutment in said other end of said saddle body comprises a contact edge disposed in laterally-offset contacting engagement with said screw.
 9. A plate-registration-adjustment saddle, according to claim 8, wherein said contact edge of said abutment comprises the edge of a bore extending into said other end face of said saddle body. 